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5th April 2013 Archive

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  • Bitcoin-mining malware ENSLAVES computers

    All your CPU cycles belong to us, say the script kiddies

    Dumb-as-a-post Bitcoin-mining malware has appeared – bringing further proof that the virtual currency's hyperbolic trajectory is attracting the sort of late-to-the-party shady speculator that telegraphs a jarring fall. The malware is currently spreading through a wide-ranging link poisoning campaign being run on Skype, a …

    Security 5 Apr 00:25

  • Rackspace sues 'the most notorious patent troll in America'

    Sounds like a job for SHIELD

    Texan hosting firm Rackspace is going on the offensive with a legal challenge to non-producing entity (or patent troll, as they are more commonly known) Parallel Iron – a firm Rackspace describes as "the most notorious patent troll in America." Rackspace is still feeling cocky after its victory last week in the Eastern …

    Law 5 Apr 00:25

  • NORKS closes South-Korea-run industrial enclave

    Tension is no threat to tech supply chain, says international business boffin

    North Korea has cut off access to the Kaesŏng Industrial Park, a manufacturing precinct on North Korean soil that is run by South Korean companies. Kaesŏng opened in 2004 and has since become home to several South Korean technology manufacturers, although big names have stayed away due to the Park's precarious position ten …

    Business 5 Apr 00:53

  • Lasers capture 3D images from a kilometre away

    Not even distance will save you

    It sounds like a privacy advocate's worst nightmare: fire an infrared laser, scan the object, get its time-of-flight, and you can create a 3D imaging system that works at up to a kilometre distance. It's not a completely new idea, of course. It is, in fact, quite close to how we use airborne LIDAR to get high-resolution …

    Science 5 Apr 01:34

  • 'Pong' ported to 29-storey skyscraper 'screen'

    Game on at Philadelphia's Cira Center

    Seventies gaming classic 'Pong' will reach a hitherto undreamed of scale later in April, when a version of the game is launched for play on lights adorning a skyscraper. The building in question is Philadelphia's Cira Center, a 29-storey edifice opened in 2006. The building features a programmable array of 1500 light emitting …

    Games 5 Apr 02:25

  • OLPC shuns Indian founder after anti-tablet screed

    That guy who thinks cheap student tablets are bad idea? He don't work here no more

    The One Laptop Per Child Association has posted a statement distancing itself from Satish Jha, an entrepreneur who founded the Association in India. The Association's beef with Mr Jha relates to what it describes as “certain recent statements”. It seems highly likely this piece about India's Aakash project, which aimed to …

    Policy 5 Apr 04:03

  • Aussie AI boffins let fly with Angry Birds automation code

    See pigs squashed by scrolling code

    Java code used in last year's Angry Birds artificial intelligence competition has been released into the wild. The Australian National University's Artificial Intelligence Group last year decided the game would be a fine way of testing just how brainy artificial intelligences have become, because as anyone who's played the …

    Games 5 Apr 04:37

  • Apple pulls banned content from Chinese App Store

    Playing nice or rolling over?

    Apple is under fire again in China after removing an application from its local App Store featuring illegal content, in what could be the start of more rigorous approach to self-censorship following Cupertino’s recent run-in with the authorities. Hao Peiqiang, developer of bookstore app jingdian shucheng told the FT his …

    Policy 5 Apr 04:40

  • Australian Feds charge 17-year-old 'Anon' with four crimes

    Ten years in chokey on the cards for defacement and intrusions

    Australia's Federal Police (AFP) has announced a 17-year-old has been charged for alleged crimes undertaken in the name of Anonymous. The AFP has issued a statement about the arrest, but won't say anything else on the matter. The statement “A 17-year-old youth appeared in Parramatta Children's Court on Friday (5 April 2013) …

    Law 5 Apr 05:14

  • C-round greenbacks for Greenbytes

    First in flash-optimised virtual storage appliances

    VDI flash array HW and SW supplier Greenbytes has snagged $7 million in C-round funding. The funding comes from existing investors Generation Investment Management and Battery Ventures. It will be used "to continue the expansion and acceleration of global sales, marketing and partner development efforts, and for ongoing …

    Storage 5 Apr 06:09

  • Scality proudly unveils its RING to the world

    Should we go Tolkien on the subhead, boss? Or ...

    Is it possible? Could a digital media company have a single storage system for rich media libraries that covers linear archiving, non-linear play-out and scales indefinitely? Storage biz Scality says, using its object storage-based RING for Digital Media, it is. Digital media storage can be a heterogeneous nightmare. Take …

    Storage 5 Apr 07:26

  • Freeview telly test suggests 4G interference may not be a big deal

    Do you know where your booster is? Or if you have one?

    A trial 4G network, covering 22,000 homes just left of Birmingham, only interfered with TV reception in 15 of them - paving the way for an interference-free rollout over the summer, we're told. The trial was conducted by at800, the organisation charged with spending £180m of cell network operator money to solve the problem. …

    Mobile 5 Apr 07:58

  • Wanna put your toaster and fridge online? Over to you, Ofcom

    New wireless spec for 'Internet of Things' awaits rubber stamp

    A blueprint for connecting up toasters, kettles and toys, and popping them onto the internet, has landed on the desk of the UK watchdog Ofcom. Version 1 of Weightless SIG's specification describes how devices can comfortably communicate over White Space - a collection of unused gaps in the radio spectrum. Gadgets can access an …

    Mobile 5 Apr 08:19

  • GPs blow whistle to watchdog on patient record privacy threat

    Docs fear they'll break data protection laws

    The UK's data protection watchdog has highlighted concerns it has with a new information-sharing initiative that has begun operating in the health sector in England. Earlier this week a new Health and Social Care Information Centre (HSCIC) was established with the power to require health bodies to hand over "any information" …

    Law 5 Apr 08:38

  • Gaming's favourite platters get another stir of the pot

    Game Theory BioShock Infinite, Gears of War: Judgement, SimCity, Luigi’s Mansion 2 and more...

    Another month goes by and, as ever, gaming isn’t short of its share of news and controversies. While recent reveals of Battlefield 4, Metal Gear Solid V, The Witcher 3 and Thief: Out of the Shadows show us what the future holds, there's no getting around the fact that we're currently entrenched in a present in which …

    Games 5 Apr 09:04

  • Norkoshop: How Pyongyang well and truly forked Adobe

    El Reg exclusively reveals Kim Jong-Un's photo propaganda tool

    The recent news that North Korea had been caught red-handed indulging in some not-so-light hovercraft cloning, led our beloved Reg commenters to ponder just what software Pyongyang uses to big up its military capabilities. One initial suggestion was that the communist state's Illustrious Father and Leader, Kim Jong-Un, had …

    SPB 5 Apr 09:19

  • Bitcoin exchange: Greedy traders to blame for DDoS attack

    Bears bearing botnets?

    The soaring value of crypto-currency Bitcoin stuttered slightly last night - after a main exchange for the currency was flooded with network traffic and Bitcoin wallet site Instawallet was suspended. Mt Gox, the most popular Bitcoin exchange, blamed an ongoing distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack for trading lags and …

    Security 5 Apr 09:44

  • 'To employers, Jobs would just seem like a jerk in bad clothing'

    QuotW Plus: 'Folks who want porn can buy an Android phone'

    This was the week when Tim Cook issued an apology to every Apple-adoring fanboi in China about how lousy the firm's customer service and warranty policies in the country were. The fruity chief was prompted by lots of state-controlled news outlet pressure, along with, presumably, the prickling of his conscience, to say in an …

    Bootnotes 5 Apr 10:00

  • Microsoft to slap 9 patches on Windows junkies on Tuesday

    Nurse, prep the critical IE update and Windows Defender fix

    Microsoft is lining up nine patches - two critical - as part of the April edition of its regular Patch Tuesday update cycle. The nine bulletins due on 9 April affect all versions of Windows, some Office and Server components as well as Windows Defender on Windows 8 and RT. The first of the two critical updates covers all …

    Operating Systems 5 Apr 10:23

  • Brit musos now trouser more crumpled fivers from online music than radio

    Annual British royalties cheque check

    For the first time, online services are dishing out more money to British songwriters and composers than radio. Music authors bagged £641.8m last year worldwide from the performance of their music, up 1.7 per cent from 2011. The annual figures (PDF) from the Performing Rights Society (aka "PRS for Music" - still) provide an …

    Media 5 Apr 10:38

  • Publishing ANYTHING on .uk? From now, Big Library gets copies

    'Preserving cultural ephemera ... FOREVER'

    On the same day that thousands of public sector bods will go on strike in a row over pay, pensions and working conditions, new regulations will come into force at midnight tonight allowing the British Library to begin scraping content from UK websites. Under the rules - known as legal deposit - the country's biggest collector …

    Government 5 Apr 11:03

  • Gartner: RIP PCs - tablets will CRUSH you this year

    Bad luck, Windows - you'll do better in 4 more years

    PC sales are in terminal decline thanks to the continued popularity of tablets and there’s nothing an anticipated surge in ultramobiles can do to stop it. That’s according to beancounters at Gartner, who reckon the outcome will be anaemic growth rates for Microsoft’s Windows in 2013 as Google’s Android blows the doors off. …

    Tablets 5 Apr 11:17

  • How I nearly sold rocket windows to the crazy North Koreans

    Worrying thing is, they're even crazier than you think

    The North Koreans are rattling the war drums and claiming that they're about to drop the odd bomb on either South Korea or the US (and possibly Japan as well). And so El Reg asks the resident metals wide-boy (me) to explain it all to you, something that might seem odd until you realise quite how wide this boy is. For I've some …

    Government 5 Apr 11:33

  • Xyratex tight-lipped over unimpressive first quarter

    Comment Loose lips sink ships, but sometimes they sink anyway

    As expected and following on from its board caving in to Baker Street Capital Management and ousting of CEO Steve Barber, Xyratex's quarterly revenues are down 34 per cent year-on-year. Revenues for Q1 2013, ending 28 February 2013, were $195.6m, which contrasts badly with the $295.7m reported a year ago and the $265.4m …

    Storage 5 Apr 11:47

  • The healing hands of guru Dabbs

    Something for the Weekend, Sir? I command you IT devil... get out!

    A colleague strides purposefully across the open-plan office to the production desk. She has the wrinkled brow and wild eyes of someone who is simultaneously baffled and angry. She’s on deadline but her computer is “doing stupid things” and she doesn’t understand what or why or how to stop it. "Oh shit, it's worse than I …

    Laptops 5 Apr 12:00

  • Hubble boffins: Incredibly old supernova could explain EVERYTHING

    Might also answer poser: 'If supernovae were popcorn...'

    NASA's Hubble telescope has spotted the most distant massive star explosion of its kind ever, one which could help boffins understand the very fabric of the universe. The telescope picked out Supernova UDS10Wil, also known as SN Wilson, in the night sky. The star apparently blew up over 10 billion years ago, and the resulting …

    Science 5 Apr 12:17

  • BSkyB punters drown in MASSIVE MYSTERY Yahoo! mail! migration!

    Updated Telly'n'broadband giant falls out with Google Gmail

    Thousands of old and duplicated emails are flooding the inboxes of irritated BSkyB customers - after the media giant dumped Google's Gmail overnight and turned to Yahoo! to run its message service. The migration to Yahoo!'s servers, which happened with little or no warning for some users, was branded a total cock-up by …

    Applications 5 Apr 12:38

  • Nokia shutters Shanghai store as Chinese stay away in their billions

    Smell of death putting them off, perhaps

    Nokia has closed its flagship Shanghai retail store in an attempt to trim costs and concentrate on other sales channels as it looks to arrest an alarming decline in smartphone sales in the world’s biggest market. State-run news agency Xinhua posted some snaps of the shuttered store – which was opened in 2007 to much fanfare as …

    Mobile 5 Apr 13:04

  • Gov report: Actually, evil City traders DIDN'T cause the banking crash

    Lending money to SMEs and giving people mortgages did

    So we've now got the official report on the glorious cock-up that was Halifax Bank of Scotland. There will of course be cries that lessons must be learned, such things must never be allowed to happen again and that the guilty must be punished, as is traditional in such post mortems. But the important thing is that the right …

    Financial News 5 Apr 13:33

  • Movie bosses demand Google take down takedown notices

    Arrgh, cut myself on this damn double-edged sword

    Movie studios have taken the fight against piracy to a whole new level by sending takedown notices to Google asking it to remove links to their takedown notices. NBC Universal and 20th Century Fox are meta-fighting the Chocolate Factory because its search links to takedown notices on sites like Chilling Effects could be used …

    Media 5 Apr 14:04

  • Why I'm hiring the BRAINS and BALLS of CONSERVATIVE 2.0

    ¡Bong! Welcome, visionary Rahul Sativa

    "Our educational policy must enable everyone who receives an education to develop morally, intellectually and physically and become a worker with both socialist consciousness and culture." - Mao Tse Tung, On the Correct Handling of Contradictions Among the People (1959) There will soon be a new face at Bong Ventures. The UK …

    Bootnotes 5 Apr 14:29

  • Half a MEELLION passwords reset after Scribd security snafu

    Scribblers' YouTube claims 99% of users not dirtied

    Scribd, which claims to be the world's largest online library, has been hacked - exposing the email addresses, usernames and password hashes of 500,000 users. The document-sharing website admitted the database raid may have leaked the details of one per cent of its 50-million-plus users. Potentially affected users have been …

    Security 5 Apr 15:04

  • Samsung didn't break quarterly profit record, consoles itself with $7.7bn

    Plans to coin it by flogging cheap models next quarter

    Samsung Electronics said today that it won't be posting record quarterly earnings for the first time since 2011 when it announces profit for January to March this year. The Korean chaebol said that it estimates an operating profit of about 8.7 trillion won ($7.7bn) for the first quarter of 2013 on sales of around 52 trillion …

    Financial News 5 Apr 15:33

  • US jobs grew at slower pace in March, says gov

    IT sector flatlines - who's got the defibrillator?

    US employers worried about the sequester's effect on government spending didn't hire as many new workers in March as economists expected. Changes in the all-important IT sector were much less pronounced than in other industries, though. While the unemployment rate decreased it did so for the wrong reasons, with an increase of …

    Jobs 5 Apr 15:57

  • Juniper future-proofs 'programmable' switches in Cisco battle

    EX9200 40GE modular switches will ramp to 100GE later this year

    Juniper networks has trotted out a new line of EX series modular Ethernet switches that will scale up to 100 Gigabit/sec links later this year – and its timing is spot on. With a resurgent Cisco Systems on its hands, Juniper Networks must work harder to get attention and peddle networking gear to the world's data centers and …

    Data Networking 5 Apr 16:54

  • German ransomware threatens with sick kiddie smut

    IWF warns of scheme to shock victims into 'police' payment

    Security technicians at Sophos are poring over a new piece of ransomware that uses images of purported child sexual abuse to extort money from internet users, a discovery that has prompted an alert from the Internet Watch Foundation (IWF). The malware activates when a user is online, and opens a browser-locking screen that …

    Security 5 Apr 18:03

  • Microsoft: 'Facebook Home just copies Windows Phone'

    'Anything Zuck can do, we can do better...'

    Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg might think his company broke new ground by building its Facebook Home skin for Android around the idea of "people first," but according to Microsoft, all the social network has done is borrow a page from Redmond's playbook. In a post to the company's official blog on Friday, Microsoft mouthpiece …

    Phones 5 Apr 19:59

  • Amazon slashes Windows cloud pricing

    Announces private yellow show at Microsoft Management Summit

    Another day brings another Amazon Web Services price cut, yielding another frantic bout of spreadsheet-hammering among the Microsoft and Google accountants trying to work out just how low their companies' margins can go, we imagine. Thursday's price cut sees Amazon go after Microsoft's Windows Azure cloud by reducing the cost …

    Cloud 5 Apr 20:43

  • Microsoft Xbox gaffe reveals cloudy arrogance

    Comment No, we're not all online all the time

    On Thursday afternoon a Twitter conversation between Adam Orth, creative director at Microsoft Studios, and a developer friend about the contentious issue of server-connected gaming sparked something of a storm after being posted on Reddit. "Sorry, I don't get the drama around having an always-on console," Orth tweeted. "Every …

    Cloud 5 Apr 20:59

  • Android's US market share continues to slip

    Don't look now, Andy, but the iPhone is gaining on you

    Apple may be taking its lumps these days – what with a falling share price, pesky activist investors, troubles in China, and the like – but there's one important area in which Cupertino is steadily gaining ground: US smartphone sales. For the past 100 months, the stat-happy analysts at comScore have been tracking mobile-device …

    Phones 5 Apr 22:24

  • Apple handed victory in Samsung text-selection patent case

    Full ITC panel to decide in August if Sammy's kit should be banned

    The US International Trade Commission (USITC) has handed Apple a preliminary victory in one of its many disputes with Samsung, ruling that the Korean electronics giant did, indeed, infringe upon a patent relating to text selection. The patent in question, RE41,922, is entitled "Method and apparatus for providing translucent …

    Law 5 Apr 23:36

  • Google cofounder Brin sighted in Tesla batmobile

    Photo Pink car a fine ride for King Google

    Google's cyborg tzar Sergey Brin has been spotted tooling around Silicon Valley in a heavily-customized Tesla Model S, sending reverberations through the tech world at the ad-slingers auto ambitions. Brin put peddle pedal to the metal on Friday, and took his customized e-car for a drive in a clear sign to this hack that – …

    Bootnotes 5 Apr 23:43

  • Ahoy! Google asks US gov't to help sink patent 'privateers'

    New, mutant strain of patent trolling on the rise

    Patent trolls are bad enough on their own. But increasingly, companies that otherwise develop technology and sell products have begun outsourcing their patent portfolios to patent trolls as a strategic weapon against their competitors, and that can be even worse. So say Google, BlackBerry, EarthLink, and Red Hat in comments …

    Policy 5 Apr 23:49